The present invention relates generally to a deployable dining table associated with an aircraft passenger seat, and more particularly, to a dining table hinged for compound movement between a stowed position beneath a fixed vanity table and a deployed ergonomic position for dining or other use.
Airlines offering business and premium seating classes often incorporate passenger suites into their cabin layouts. Suites are typically defined by privacy walls and include lie-flat adjustable seats, vanities, desks, video monitors, tables, etc. In certain configurations, vanities and desks can take the form of static structures positioned forward of the seat. While forward spacing facilitates seat ingress, egress and full horizontal adjustability, it makes it impractical and uncomfortable to use these static structures for working and dining purposes. Therefore, additional tables that deploy closer to the seat are necessary.
Tray tables have historically been deployable from one of an armrest positioned alongside the seat, a monument laterally adjacent the seat, or from beneath a desk positioned forward of the seat. In each of the foregoing configurations it is necessary to move the table between a stowed position and a deployed use position. Armrest and monument deployable tables require complex hinges in order to change the orientation of the table for stowing and use, e.g., from vertical to horizontal. Tables that deploy from beneath a forward static structure require linear movement forward and aft. Because most vanities, desks and like forward static structures have a different height than the ergonomic height of a dining table, complex mechanisms are necessary to deploy the table towards the user and lower the table to the proper ergonomic height.
Therefore, to overcome the disadvantages of prior art deployable tables and complex hinge mechanisms, what is needed is a mechanism that provides compound movement for a forward positioned deployable dining table.